1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices and methods for recapturing partially deployed heart valve prostheses within a body lumen. The recapture devices include a recapture sleeve attached to a guide wire at its distal end, with an opening along a longitudinal axis of the recapture sleeve at the proximal end of the recapture sleeve.
2. Background
Recently, minimally invasive approaches have been developed to facilitate catheter-based implantation of prostheses, for example, transcatheter aortic-valve prosthesis implantation. Typically, during transcatheter prosthesis implantations, a prosthesis is radially contracted onto a delivery catheter so that the prosthesis can be introduced into a body lumen, for example, into the femoral artery, the subclavian artery, or the aorta, or into a body cavity, for example, a chamber of the heart (e.g., the ventricle). The contracted configuration of the prosthesis on the delivery catheter can be maintained by a retaining sleeve positioned over the prosthesis. Using the delivery catheter, the prosthesis can be guided to a desired implantation site through the body lumen or body cavity. Once the prosthesis is advanced to the desired implantation site, the prosthesis can be deployed by withdrawing the retaining sleeve and allowing the prosthesis to expand, for example, through balloon expansion or self-expansion.
During transapical deployment of an aortic heart valve prosthesis, a problem can occur if during the final stages of deployment the prosthetic valve moves distal to the native valve (i.e. toward the aortic arch). At this stage of deployment, the prosthetic valve will be partially expanded, making it difficult to reposition it within the native valve. In a transfemoral procedure, for instance, the prosthesis can be forced back into the introducer in order to remove it from the body. However, this cannot be done in a transapical procedure. Therefore, a system or device is needed to recapture a partially deployed heart valve prosthesis implanted via a transapical procedure.